<p>I will be majoring in CS, and will like to know what type of college would you suggest for a CS major? I know CS is very heavy math, and I am prepared for that... I was thinking of the new Nspire, but I heard you can't use it in some classes, so I wouldn't want to waste my money on something I couldn't use. So what graphing calculator would you suggest for a CS major... </p>
<p>Thank You... :)</p>
<p>Any cheap scientific calculator will do. “Math heavy” does not mean “computation heavy”, the latter of which you’ll do with computers more than calculators. Calculators were never needed in my CS courses, and rarely ever used in some basic statistics courses. That’s pretty much it.</p>
<p>ETA: Of course, I did learn calculus before programmable, graphic calculators were all the rage.</p>
<p>At my college, you wouldn’t need a calculator at all. There are math software packages for the computer (mathematica, matlab, maple, …) that are much more powerful than any calculator out there. They are also preferred for assignments because you can easily print out your work and hand it in.</p>
<p>A good but inexpensive non-programmable, non-graphing scientific calculator would be useful. I recommend the Casio fx-115ES which costs only $17 and will do everything that you might need a calculator to do.</p>
<p>Yes I know, but I will not be using this calculator in my CS courses, but my Cal. 1, 2, and 3 classes, and prob and stats… What calculator would you suggest for those mathematics? I am thinking a Ti-89… And although NOT NECESSARY, a graphing calculator can make many things in these math’s easier…</p>
<p>I was a math major and not even once tempted to use a graphing calculator in college. I guess you could do <em>some</em> things on a graphing calculator, but you wouldn’t get the most useful features of computer software: 3-d graphing, high-powered algebraic and differential equation solvers, seeing several graphs side-by-side, copying-and-pasting, etc.</p>
<p>If you want a fancy calculator for convenience, I’d get the most powerful one you are comfortable with. Just don’t get too used to it because you probably won’t be allowed to use it on exams.</p>
<p>Yea, which calculators would most likely not be allowed on an exam? Would a Ti-89 or Ti-Nspire be to much?</p>
<p>Math/CS department at my school has a policy against calculators on tests…so it wouldn’t matter if you had an abacus 
It’s possible your department website has information about such things. If you have to take a physics class/sequence, or a computer/electrical engineering course, it might see some use there as an addition/subtraction machine if you don’t want to use your laptop!</p>
<p>Yea i am planning on getting my normal fav. sci. calculator, and a ti-89 perhaps is i can use it…</p>
<p>At my college some physics and chemistry professors allowed graphing calculators, but none of the math and computer science folks. My favorite students were the kids in calculus who begged to get to use at least a scientific calculator because they couldn’t add fractions without one. </p>
<p>If you don’t need the calculator for high school now, why don’t you wait until you get to college before you buy one?</p>
<p>A Ti-nspire cas (the grey version) used to cost <$60 at schoolmart, but I don’t think schoolmart sells them anymore. They are pretty useful, but if your school doesn’t let you use them, it isn’t worth it.</p>
<p>Here is a link that might help you make your decision: [Graphing</a> Calculator Review 2012 - TopTenREVIEWS](<a href=“http://graphing-calculator-review.toptenreviews.com/]Graphing”>http://graphing-calculator-review.toptenreviews.com/)</p>
<p>I used to use my TI-89 a lot (and it was definitely great for calc), but nowadays I find tools like WolframAlpha to be enough…so it’s up to you. The nice thing about a calculator is that it’s small and portable, and if you’re doing homework it’s harder to get distracted with one (as opposed to a computer).</p>